Anyone here in the manufacturing biz?

[SweetPete]

Guys,

I've been in the software biz for 20 years this year, and I've had enough - time for a career change.

I want to start a product development company. I've got a list of 11 products that I'd like to bring to market, ranging from household stuff to music equipment to a personal care product. Two of the products I would term inventions, the others are "innovations" or "better mousetraps".

Anyway, anyone here involved in manufacturing? I need to learn the basics of how to get stuff made, specifically things made out of plastic using injection molding (I think - maybe I *do* know more than I thought!). Also - the big question - manufacture here in the good old USA? Or get it done overseas?

Thanks to anyone who replies...

[HuntinDoug]

We have a community college in Dayton that has a plastics prototype machine. You can take a couple classes, and have your hands on the machine. I'm sure that is much more cost effective than hiring a company with the same machine....More fun too.

Back in 1996 I took some manufacturing engineering classes there. I had a full machine shop at my disposal.. complete with free materials...it was great!

Be careful of the patent lawyers ... They stroked me for a couple grand a few years ago.

[QuantumRider]

Be careful of the patent lawyers ... They stroked me for a couple grand a few years ago.

SweetPete-

I've been in the patent business for about 8 years, and I highly doubt that the two "inventions" are actually novel.

I did 5 to 10 patent searches a week for about three years. So that's 780 to 1560 "inventions" that I had searched whether there were preexisitng patents for. Of the 780-1560 ideas that I searched, 3 were actually novel.

I'm not saying this to discourage you, but rather advising you so that you don't get sued for patent infringement.

I would recommend that you conduct a patent search on your own, or hire someone to do it for you.

In the case that you want to hire someone to do your patent search, DO NOT go through an IP law firm, as they will jack you hard, as huntindoug said. Rather, hire a patent search firm. The law firms have their searches done by patent search firms, then add a 100% to 300% markup of the price as their fees. For instance, the search firm that I used to work at charged our clients (inventors and patent attorneys) $200 for a novelty search. The patent attorneys would in turn charge their clients $700 or so.

If you send me a PM, I can give you the names of some good patent search firms.

In the case that you want to do the search yourself, you can go to the USPTO in Alexandria and do so if you live in or near Northern VA, or you can enter some terms in the patent search page of the USPTO website (www.uspto.gov).

Hope this helps,
-QR

PS. If your ideas are in fact novel, I would recommend that you obtain patents, then license them to a company who already has manufacturing facilities, so that you would not have to invest in any machinery or the like, while still being compensated for your invention. For example, Floyd Rose got $13 for every trem that was sold while his patent was in force. That's a lot of cash.

[Soloist1]

There are plenty of companies in the US that can do the injection molded pieces. You need to get what ever it is designed and drawn up to send to a molder or molders for a quote.

[DonP]

My company designs plastic shit - then we get the stuff made from China, pennies on the dollar, then sell to WalMarts and others. Huge profit - how can you go wrong?

But because we can't sell worth a shit, we are going under. From $130M a year down to $50M a year in 4 years. Great management is the key LOL!

[Stinkbug]

I fix manufacturing / Supply Chains for a living and I have done some design work in the past.

True innovation is rare. The Russian dude (the name escapes me) that invented TRIZ does a good job of explaining that conclusion. Reading up on the TRIZ process might help you to develop products faster and cheaper.

Speed as a good asset in product development for many reasons. You might want to learn Critical Chain to help reduce development time. Actually, Theory of Constraints in general would be good to learn.

As for manufacturing in the US or overseas it depends on what you are making. If you are making "Plastic Shit" in high volumes then China is probably the place to go. The whole China is cheaper thing isn't always true. Lead times increase drastically, engineering changes are a pain, Inventories sky rocket, etc. Some companies are starting to get wise to that now. I could go on...because I have a hard time shutting up about manufacturing processes...but I won't unless that is interesting to you. :-)

[SweetPete]

Guys,

Thanks for the all the info. I had a patent attorney (who didn't charge too much - friend of a friend) give me the go-ahead on the 1st product a few months back. I've been busy with my regular job (and new baby), so I'm just getting back to all of this.

I'll do some reading on TRIZ, thanks Stinkbug.

And DonP - good God, find some better management!

[DonP]

And DonP - good God, find some better management!

I'm just the Director of IT.

If it was my company, I'd fire all there F'ing asses. One "consultant COO" who doesn't know or do jack shit is getting $35,000 every TWO WEEKS!!!

I'm giving my two week notice tomorrow. My old boss is pulling me to his new place. He hooked up with our ex-CFO, he's now the CIO of this other company. The suck part, I will be working in Cleveland 5 days a week, coming home only on weekends. I have three kids, 11, 9, 6 and this is going to suck, but I have to pay the bills.

[Newc]

I work in the manufacturing biz, but I do the actual grunt work. Does that count? :ROTF:

Anyhoo, you might get faster prototyping with a USA company. Find one down south that doesn't have a Union and you will get the cheaper labor as an added bonus

If you can speak Spanish, then communicating with the factory will be much easier

Not sure if these guys can do it - pretty sure they can - but there's a company attached to a design program called e-MachineShop - www.emachineshop.com - and they have a wide range of materials and manufacturing techniques they can work with. Haven't used them myself, but the program seems fairly easy to work with once you go through their tutorials. Basically you mill it in a 3D format with the program (has all kinds of jigs and tools for it - bevelers, routers, etc etc etc) and send the design to them for a quote on a proto or small run.

[SweetPete]

NewC,

Thanks for the heads up on e-machineshop - I think I've seen that software before - not too advanced, not too simplistic. I recently found that Google has a cool little free drawing/design program called SketchUp - it's great for brainstorming a generic prototype.

[Soloist1]

SweetPete try these places for prototypes. A mold may well run over 100 grand. You can get places to make a few prototypes and see what the market interest is before blowing a wad of change on the molding. Here's two sites.

http://www.quickparts.com/

http://www.protocam.com

[atomic charvel guy]

I manufactured and sold memory modules for a trillion years. I bouth the chips factory sealed, or on boards and had the work subbed out to local cats that had the pick and place machines.
And Don, the same thing over here, I used to move 4-5 million a month in revenue now it's like, well, i guess you could call it 0.-lol